Rembrandt's Wife

Rembrandt was famous for his portraits: rosy cheeks, smiling women, luscious naked
curves.

He lived with his wife, Saskia, in love and luxury. Hers is the plump face that
smiles out of so many of his works.

But as an old man, Rembrandt did not paint laughing women. He died alone, destitute.
The women he loved — his wife, his mistress, and his last muse — were
gone. One to consumption, one to the plague, one confined without cause to an insane
asylum at his own bidding.

Discover this extraordinary story in the first revival of this 2009 chamber opera
by Andrew Ford and Sue Smith.

For decades, Andrew Ford has championed music in cars and living rooms as host
of the ABC’s Music Show. Now you can hear one of his own works, with
a poignant libretto by playwright and screenwriter Sue Smith (Saving Mr Banks,
Hydra).

Warwick Stengards conducts this lyrical work featuring a nine-piece ensemble. Richard
Anderson is the embattled painter. Taryn Fiebig performs as Saskia and as Rembrandt’s
maid and muse, Hendrickje. Agnes Sarkis performs as his mistress, Geertje.

A new production by director Tabatha McFadyen invites you into the Opera Australia
scenery workshop, where vast sets and ingenious props take shape.

How I yearned to be good — how
I tried. But all that was good in me
died with a girl in a summer hat.

It is the darkest time in the life of Rembrandt van Rijn. His beloved wife,
Saskia, has recently died, leaving him to raise their only child, Titus, alone. Haunted
by visions of Saskia, Rembrandt seeks solace by beginning an affair with his son’s
nurse, Geertje Dircx.

But Geertje is soon replaced in both Rembrandt’s affections — and his
bed — by the young housemaid, Hendrickje Stoffels, who will become his greatest
muse.

The rejected Geertje takes revenge by suing Rembrandt for a broken engagement. In
his turn, in collusion with Geertje’s family, Rembrandt has her committed to
an institution. But, it seems, cosmic justice demands retribution: Rembrandt’s
work begins to fall from fashion. Others are overtaking him as the fashionable
“stars” of the Dutch art scene. And he has lived extravagantly, way
beyond his means.

Bankrupt, morally tarnished by his adulterous relationship with Hendrickje, and
facing utter destitution, Rembrandt is forced to make a heartbreaking choice —
he sells the only thing he has left of any real value: the exquisitely engraved
marble headstone he bought, in more prosperous times, to sit atop Saskia’s grave. And,
with it, the grave itself. Saskia’s bones are dug up and discarded to make
room for the grave’s next occupant. Destitute, disgraced but unbowed, Rembrandt
vows to defy fashion, convention and orthodox morality: he will concede nothing
to the expectations of the outside world. He will go to his own grave as he has
lived: paintbrush in hand.